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Sunday, April 05, 2009

Stained Glass Window at Greek Orthodox Church

The stained glass window is found at the entrance of the Dormition of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Church at 800 Westridge Road. Greensboro isn't filled with stained glass like the European cities; however, we do have some beauties like the one above and will feature other examples in upcoming posts. Today crept up on us and we didn't get back to learn more about the window. If you attend this church and know the history of this window, please share the information in a comment below. From an artistic point of view, we love the way the colors of the window reflect onto the brass name plates on the wooden plaque on the left. The scene appears to be God handing Jesus to Mary (Theotokos).

If your church has stained glass windows and you need replacement pieces or you are a crafter looking for sheets of stained glass, we suggest contacting Blenko Glass Company in nearby West Virginia. Blenko has a fascinating process for hand blowing sheet glass in a process that has not changed for over 100 years.

Many thanks for you visit and kind comments at Luna's blog.
Our Luxembourg Daily is "out"for a while because I'm in Brazil now.I do hope to be "on line"with this blog as soon as possible ( from Luxembourg of course ).
Beautiful pictures in your blog! This stained glass is outstanding.
Congratulations!
Kind Regards
Léia

I am a new member of the church in question, and while I haven't been around long enough to know the history of the window's manufacture, I can tell you what it represents.

This panel, found in the entryway of the church, depicts the Presentation of Jesus Christ in the Temple. After the Theotokos -- which means "God-bearer" and is the term the Orthodox use to refer to the Virgin Mary -- had completed her 40 days of ritual purification after the birth of Christ, she took him to the temple to dedicate him and to offer sacrifices. At the temple this day was a devout old man named Symeon who had been informed by divine revelation that he would not die before seeing the Christ. So, when he saw the infant Christ, he took him into his arms and sang a song that is recorded in the second chapter of the gospel of St. Luke and is used to this day by the Orthodox at the end of evening prayer services and when infants are brought to church on the 40th day after birth: "Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation..." The feast of the Presentation is celebrated by the church on February 2, which is, as one might expect, the 40th day after Christmas.

Thank you for sharing the photo. I'd like to add that the church is quite friendly to visitors, as we discovered when we first visited a few months ago, so I would encourage anyone who may want to see this and the other beautiful stained glass that this church features to consider coming to a service, since the building is generally only open during service times.

Yes, thank you! I have seen the older posts about the church and I posted a link to this blog on my personal blog a few weeks back. The stained glass is one of my favorite features of the building, so I am delighted to see some portion of it featured.